YESTERDAY’S 30TH ANNIVERSARY BLU-RAY RELEASE IS JUST THE LATEST CHAPTER IN THE TRANSFORMERS SAGA
Beyond good. Beyond evil. Beyond your wildest imagination.
That was the tag line to Transformers: The Movie and it perfectly summed up how an entire generation of kids saw the phenomenon that was Transformers. A phenomenon that transcended the toys and the cartoons and the endless parade of merchandise bearing their name and logos and became a symbol of both our childhoods and the imaginations that so often ran away with us.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_25RK5GbJIc&w=560&h=315]
I’ve always been candid about my love for Transformers. From the toys (I remember unwrapping Thundercracker at my seventh birthday party with vivid, almost magical clarity) to the cartoon (which I was instantly addicted to when I stumbled upon it by accident one lazy Sunday afternoon) to everything in between. The truth is it was the concept beneath the hype and the relentless merchandise that captured my imagination like nothing else before or since. Whenever I think about my childhood, Transformers is the first thing I think of and it brings a bigger smile to my face than any other memory I have from those days (I was a child of the 80’s that grew up in a microscopic farm town and my parents wouldn’t let me go trick or treating until I was thirteen for fear of razor blades lurking in apples. Cut me some slack).
I can’t honestly think of a modern comparison for how big Transformers was. The Robots in Disguise were hardly confined to the toy shelves they dominated for years. They starred in cartoons and comic books, they were on posters and trading cards and stickers, in “pick your own adventure books” and on wallets, bed sheets and any kind of school supply and clothing you could think of. I remember losing a fierce battle of wills with my parents over having Transformers wallpaper in my bedroom (I also struck out on Charlie Brown, reluctantly agreeing to my mother’s “suggestion” of boring shipwrecked theme wallpaper).
So when Transformers: The Movie hit theatres in August of 1986, the world came to an-honest-to-God standstill for an entire generation. Millions of kids immediately began badgering their parents to take them to see it and in a time when you couldn’t YouTube a movie trailer fifty times a day, we spent hours in front of the TV waiting for another precious glimpse. Not only because the Transformers cartoon was the hottest thing going at the time (it’s number one on my ten favourite after school cartoons) but because the commercials also teased us with the ultimate question-would Optimus Prime die? There were endless debates on that topic that summer and even though we all agreed that the Autobot leader would indeed survive, we were all nervously wringing our hands when new episodes of the show debuted the following September. And there was no shortage of outraged shock when we learned that Optimus had indeed been sent to the great toy store in the sky (the fan backlash was so strong, producers resurrected Prime later that year).
But that was one of many things that made this movie great, especially for a target audience that was so often patronized and talked down to (I don’t think parents of any generation truly realize how little credit they give their kids). It may have been traumatizing for some, but when Transformers came along we were ready for something with more bite, more gravitas. And while Transformers was indeed darker and was certainly more violent and disturbing, it made sure we knew that death was ugly and grotesque (Transformers was the first animated movie I can remember that was rated PG instead of G, which made us want to see it even more).
There are stories of kids breaking down into tears when Optimus Prime died on screen, his body tuning a cold gray as his spirit departed the land of the living. In fact a number of the original characters met grisly fates. After being shot through the chest, the Autobot Prowl vomited up a cloud of crimson vapour before his eyes flickered and his lifeless body collapsed to the ground. The ever-popular Ironhide literally had his head blown off by a smiling Megatron. When the homicidal Megatron in question was resurrected as Galvatron (a sort of Megatron 2.0), the first thing he did was hunt down the treacherous Starscream and reduce him to a pile of smoldering ash. That isn’t an exaggeration, that’s exactly how it went down. Like I said, ugly and grotesque, but not insulting or condescending.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4iwY2LXhz0&w=560&h=315]
And it had a voice cast unlike any other cartoon movie of its day. Show regulars (and modern folk heroes) Peter Cullen, Frank Welker and Chris Latta were joined by the likes of Judd Nelson, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Stack, Eric Idle and Lionel Stander. The near omnipotent, planet-devouring monster Unicron was voiced by the legendary Orson Welles (Welles died five days after his final voice recording session). That may not sound like a big deal now with the all-star voice casts Pixar assembles, but for a movie based on a toy line and an after school cartoon in 1986 it was huge.
The animation was handled by Japanese anime studios, creating a more sophisticated look that lent itself perfectly to the movie’s more mature content. The animators were able to inject more menace and visual venom into the characters (even though they were voiced by the same actors who brought their daily cartoon incarnations to life), yet everything was brighter and more vibrant at the same time. It would be years before we saw animation on that par again.
Even the soundtrack was a breath of exciting air. Stan Bush’s now iconic hair rock ballad The Touch, played during Prime’s final fight with his arch nemesis Megatron, was actually intended for the Sylvester Stallone action flick Cobra. But it pretty much became the anthem for Transformers’, even making future appearances in the cartoon. Even Weird Al Yankovic got in on the act and The Transformers’ soundtrack was an enduring mix of typical 80’s synth metal and ominous instrumentals. How enduring? Twenty years later it was available on iTunes.
It was months before I finally saw the movie on home video. Despite my best efforts and all my adolescent charm I couldn’t talk my parents into taking me to see it (not even for my birthday). I don’t even think anyone from my entire school saw it while it was in the theatres, which might explain the movie’s dismal performance at the box office. It failed to make back its six million dollar budget (pretty heady for a cartoon movie in those days) and its losses convinced Hasbro to shelve plans for any more theatrical releases (the G.I. Joe movie was turned into a five episode mini-series and plans for a Jem movie were cancelled entirely). And as it turned out, the movie was the apex moment for Transformers. The show would continue (the movie bridged seasons two and three, killing off a number of characters to make room for new ones whose toys would be hitting store shelves soon) but the fourth season was nothing more than a three-episode mini-series. The toy line would stumble along a little longer (which was a shame because the toys demonstrated some really ground breaking, imaginative ideas in its final years) but soon the once blinding super nova that was Transformers had burned out almost completely.
But despite all that, Transformers The Movie has become a cult classic and the Transformers is so deeply embedded in the DNA of my generation that Optimus and company are having a Unicron sized moment once again. The (rightfully) maligned Michael Bay movies have grossed over 3.7 billion dollars worldwide and the next summer’s fifth instalment will likely be another blockbuster. Comics and toys have been gracing store shelves the past few years and an assortment of new Transformers cartoons have been on the cable waves and Internet the past decade.
That’s why yesterday’s Blu-ray release celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the movie, complete with a new coat of digital paint and a buffet of extras, doesn’t really feel like a milestone but rather the latest chapter in the saga of this franchise. A franchise that seems destined to defy the cruelty of time and exist beyond our imagination.
Just like the tag line promised.
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